Prior to the present invention, and in all commercial applications presently engaged in providing deboned poultry meat, the only method employed was the manual removal of the leg and thigh meat from the bone.
For many years, the manual deboning process has been the only means for supplying a rapidly growing commercial demand for deboned poultry meat. This has been true for both the "white meat" from the breast or wings as well as for the "dark meat" from the leg or thigh portions. Usually the white and dark portions are sold separately because of the taste preference of consumers.
However, in spite of the many years over which a high demand for deboned poultry meat has been recognized, a satisfactory automated method and apparatus has not been developed which combines the requirements of efficiency, sanitation, speed, and simplicity of manufacture to any significant degree necessary to replace the manual process.
In the face of the relatively high cost and inefficiency of the manual process, the inherent problems of automating this deboning process have not been solved prior to the present invention.